Sad Fate of Sebastian's Kennel

 A 50ss game of Malifaux on Vassal.

Strategy: Wedge Plant Explosives

Scheme pool: Assassinate, Deliver a Message, Breakthrough, Take Prisoner, Hold Up Their Forces

My list:

McMourning, Insanitary & Zombie Chihuahua
Sebastian
Corpse Curator
Carrion Effigy
Kentauroi
Bone Pile
Little Gasser
Canine Remains

Stones: 5
Schemes: Hold Up Their Forces, Deliver a Message

Opponent had:

Youko Hamasaki &  Chiyo Hamasaki
Bill Algren
Shojo
2x Kabuki Warrior
Bunraku
Tanuki
Geisha

Stones: 4
Schemes: Take Prisoner (Nurse), Deliver a Message

Turn 1:

The tip of my wedge had a tractor that divided my crew. Below was Nurse, Bone Pile, Carrion Effigy and Zombie Chihuahua. Above, the rest within 1" of a 30mm marker. 

Slowly building up corpses started with Canine Remains taking a bite out of Corpse Curator. Sebastian made a new Canine Remains from that corpse, which duplicated its own corpse in turn. That mechanic is just silly. Flask of formaldehyde poisoned most of the crew.

McMourning's plan had been to walk for a bit, then use Desperate Pace first on Sebastian to make him chatty, and then Kentauroi for absurd speed boost. I may have been a little extravagant managing my hand, and was left without proper cards for Desperate Paces. I had to give Sebastian a spare head, because he was blocking Kentauroi's push anyway.

Kentauroi and Little Gasser began speeding top, although Little Gasser was lured in to a bad position by Kabuki Warrior, who had Bill Algren and Shojo as his buddies. 

The massive blob of Canine Remains, Sebastians, Corpse Curators and McMournings were greeted by Youko, another Kabuki Warrior and Tanuki. Youko landed a traumatizing riddle on the Insanitary, dealing three damage as by that time I didn't have cards in my hand.  

Nurse failed to heal McMourning, so Zombie Chihuahua repositioned itself to stink fourth point of Poison for McMourning.

Bone Pile sniped a critical javelin through Tanuki as is only proper. Carrion Effigy healed the lost bone.

Below, Qi and Gong had sent Chiyo and Bunraku. And Geisha I suppose, although she was hardly out of Ten Thunders deployment zone. 

Turn 2:

Ten Thunders won initiative, and Kabuki Warrior charged the poor little Gasser, killing it with charge attack, so he still had plenty of action points to plant first explosive.

I was somewhat afraid of Bill engaging Kentauroi, so to secure a strategy point for me, the equestrian monstrosity rode with itself, walked and planted an explosive into forest.

In the middle, another Kabuki Warrior charged into fray, engaging Bone Pile and Nurse. 

Nurse disengaged from Kabuki, assisted distracted away from McMourning by solving the dreaded riddle and then charged back to Kabuki Warrior in an attempt to stun him. No such luck.

Shojo gets to forest near the middle and starts Boring Conversations, getting both Canine Remains and McMourning under the area. At least McMourning is able to navigate through such discussions by summoning a Flesh Construct to block LoS. He gives Sebastian's bone saw for a Canine Remains and pushes Bone Pile away from melee and Flesh Construct next to Shojo. Corpse Curator is given a spare head. That's quite a few actions there, but one came from quick reflexes. 

Bill kills a puppy, but Sebastian is there to make a new one.

A surprise for the round came from Canine Remains who had rusty bone saw - it charged Shojo just for giggles, and giggle it did with successful boring conversation check, successful attack flip and double severes even with accuracy penalties. With blast damage to boot, which spilled to Kabuki Warrior. I wish Sebastian was as proficient using his saw.

Bunraku had placed a strategy marker and charged Bone Pile. Chiyo felt safe enough to run past Bunraku's and Bone Pile's squabbling. Carrion Effigy just healed whatever Bone Pile had suffered, and Bone Pile scraped one point of damage in to the puppet.

At least Corpse Curator did something useful down below by conjuring its first sludge marker for the game. 

Youko, Tanuki and Geisha were hanging around the tip of Ten Thunders' deployment zone, lifting spirits and asking riddles. I think Shojo created three pass tokens in total from this round.

Most useful activation of the turn was when Zombie Chihuahua charged Kabuki Warrior in the middle, accomplishing only foul odor and blocking McMourning's path to enemy strategy marker. 

Scores go 1-2 for Resurrectionists when I reluctantly reveal Hold Up Their Forces. 

Turn 3:

Qi and Gong starts the turn with ten pass tokens with still more to come. And what a brutal turn it was.

Shojo put up boring conversation, which turned out to be a hideous ability when combined with Distraction aura from Kabuki Warriors. Well, of course willpower 3-4 on my models highlighted the problem... 

While I still had the chance, Carrion Effigy went to place a strategy marker so that I'd gain a point this round.

Bill Algren charged Sebastian, severing off his extra head and leaving him with four wounds remaining.

Kentauroi had to come and charge Kabuki Warrior that was sitting dancing near Shojo to block his charge to Sebastian. Stampede dealt a point of damage to both models, but this model was no miraculous Canine Remains and failed Boring Conversation check.

Kabuki Warrior? Killed the Kentauroi in two clean swipes. 

Sebastian summoned a Canine Remains and walked within 1" of Bill.

Youko forced Carrion Effigy to pick up the strategy marker it had placed earlier, so I had to figure out a way to get strategy marker past the centerline. Opponent didn't have such worries as Ten Thunders had already three markers placed. 

My plan was to poison Bunraku and then leave melee with Bone Pile in Cursed Sludge. So, Corpse Curator managed to land another sludge marker with a red joker, placing it under Chiyo. I would have been happy for just one point of damage to guarantee Chiyo's eventual death, but second attempt with Dredge Up dealt severe damage despite negative modifiers. 

I also wanted to kill Bunraku Bone Pile, so I started to activate Canine Remains to see how the situation develops. I had either Bone Pile or McMourning to drop a strategy marker. Buuut then Bunraku activated, escaped melee with Risky Maneuvers and dealt four points in to Bone Pile, which fortunately still had four more. Opponent scores a second hit, and obviously it had to be Rams that it flipped - meaning critical strike. Moderate damage would now kill Bone Pile. I didn't have high enough cards in my hand to dodge the hit, but at least I managed to score a tie, which meant triple negatives. And look at that... moderate from four cards!

Uh. At least that decided what I had to do with McMourning. Except that Kabuki Warrior in middle had killed Zombie Chihuahua, and a Geisha had lured Bill Algren away from Sebastian - right there to block path for McMourning, who had originally planned to walk to enemy strategy marker, pick it up and then place a marker past centerline.

Instead, he tried to push the Bunraku in to burning hazard, but failed. Last two actions had to be walk and interact. 

One Canine Remains had ran to engage Youko to maybe deliver a message one day.

So, I lost Kentauroi and Bone Pile to less than likely flips. What was a steady game had become a struggle instead.

Ten Thunders doesn't reveal any schemes, so scores go 2-3 for Resurrectionists. 

Turn 4:

Ten Thunders wins initiative, and Bunraku goes to place Bone Pile's explosive marker touching Resurrectionist's deployment zone. 

Flesh Construct jumped at the chance to kill Shojo now that Boring Conversation wasn't up yet, but brought her only down to two health remaining. And then there was that dreaded conversation again with Shojo also healing from it. 

Canine Remains finally delivers a message to Youko Hamasaki, but so does Geisha to McMourning. Nurse had given McMourning some painkillers without succeeding anything else, really. Youko asked her some riddles and then owned her, disengaging and moving to Bunraku. 

I lost all of my Canine Remains this turn, but not before one of them did severe damage in to Bill Algren. It probably shouldn't go like this, but come to think of it - majority of my crews damage came from Canine Remains in this game, with only Flesh Construct coming even close.

While Sebastian was attacked by Bill and Kabuki Warrior, both had had to spend actions on killing puppies. So Sebastian survived, with one health remaining. Fortunately this was all he needed to summon one more Canine Remains.

Kabuki Warrior in the middle had disengaged to engage Carrion Effigy, but didn't score a hit. McMourning managed to disengage by using my last soulstone (Distraction aura + conversation), pick up enemy strategy marker and even use Desperate Pace on Carrion Effigy to push it away from melee.

So, the effigy went to a little safer place to plant a strategy marker.

But my joy was short lived, because in the end phase opponent revealed also Take Prisoner. Scores were 4-5 for Resurrectionists.

Turn 5:

Ten Thunders started killing my un-activated models left and right. Kabuki Warrior started the ordeal by killing Sebastian and luring Shojo from the forest. This was Flesh Construct's chance to shine, and shine it did - finally Shojo was dead. And the construct was engaging a higher cost model that had already activated.

Although Corpse Curator succeeded to place fourth strategy marker for me, Youko was able to remove one. To protect one McMourning had tried to disengage twice from Kabuki Warrior, failing both times with Kabuki Warrior flipping a severe to move reduction. 

So, McMourning just implanted his rusty tools to Nurse, who was in a nasty position. If I wanted points from Hold Up Their Forces, she needed to engage someone of higher cost. However, if she was engaged, Ten Thunders would get their prisoner. I thought it best to leave her next to Bill and Geisha who had already activated that turn.

Bunraku had no trouble in getting a scheme marker next to McMourning, and Kabuki Warrior in the middle even charged to kill Carrion Effigy just for giggles. 

In the end I had lost more models than I had had at the beginning of the game. Five of them were Canine Remains, which is especially impressive since I began the game with just one. 

Even Zombie Chihuahua had been killed, bringing the total of innocent puppies killed to six. Apparently Qi and Gong thought it appropriate to also kill their keeper. I guess no dogs allowed in their holdings. 

Game was a 6-6 draw.